A lack of imagination caused the ERCOT grid failure. No one imagined a weeklong extreme cold spell, despite Hollywood blockbusters imagining extreme weather events and much, much worse. Neither the regulators nor the risk managers across the bulk power system thought much about the 200-page report issued in 2011 that highlighted Texas’ vulnerability to a cold-weather event. Two regulators outside of Texas, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), did imagine the possibility of an extreme cold spell.
Until the 2021 winter storm, Texans didn’t think much about the behind the light switch system called the bulk power system. Sure, the small collective of people, like me, who enjoy a plethora of acronyms and follow the day-to-day of the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) and ERCOT have thought a lot about the necessary reforms to our electric market, but not the average Texan. Texas is the second most po